"Official! Richárd Rapport will play for Romania from today! Welcome to our team!" - wrote the Romanian Chess Federation in its English-language Twitter post.

Chess player Rapport Richárd will continue his career in Romanian colors - this was announced by the Romanian Federation on Sunday.

László Szabó , the president of the Hungarian Federation (MSSZ), announced on the Federation's Facebook page that on Saturday night, at the same time as the Romanian Federation, he received an e-mail from the International Chess Federation (FIDE), according to which "the board of the organization rejected our objection regarding the change of the flag of Rapport Richárd , citing that the Romanian submission formally complied with the current rules."

He added: at the same time, FIDE also decided to set up an ad hoc committee, which will examine the Hungarian motion to change the flag change rules.

"I consider the rejection to be legally wrong and harmful from a sporting perspective, which has an extremely bad message for young chess players around the world. We are looking at what other legal options we have, I am glad that FIDE seems to have got its act together and is ready to review its current rule regarding the change of flag, according to which an apartment rental agreement in the country in which the athlete wants to play is enough. This is unsustainable, so we proposed that at least one year of citizenship is required to become a chess player in another country. This is where we are now, we are investigating how to proceed."

said László Szabó.

The president further highlighted:

"Richard Rapport is Hungarian, Hungarian citizen, Hungarian chess champion, silver medalist at the Chess Olympiad. We are proud of his results, we see him as Hungarian, even if he plays under the Romanian flag, he will remain Hungarian."

The 26-year-old Rapport is ranked thirteenth in the world ranking with 2,754 Live Points, and finished in eighth place at the World Chess Championship Candidates eight-player tournament in Madrid, which ended on July 4, with one win, nine draws and four losses.

The Romanian association already started the transfer procedure for Richárd Rapport and his wife, the Serbian Jovana Rapport, in May. The latter already sat at the table in Romanian colors at the European Women's Championship.

At that time, Vlad Ardeleanu, the president of the association, wrote on social media: it is an honor and a pleasure for them that such an excellent chess player as Richard Rapport, who was still ranked fifth in the world at that time, can represent Romania. He added: they want to integrate him into the Romanian team as soon as possible so that they can achieve excellent results together. Ardeleanu also stated that they want to maintain good professional relations with the Hungarian and Serbian federations. The MSSZ previously protested against Richárd Rapport's "flag change" and announced that he would do everything possible to ensure that the grandmaster would continue to compete in Hungarian colors in the future.

According to press reports, the main sponsor of the 2022 Superbet Chess Classic Romania chess tournament, Sacha Dragic, the billionaire owner of the company called Superbet, made an irresistible sponsorship offer to Rapport, thanks to which he would have the opportunity to have a real chance to win the world championship title in the coming years.

MTI

Photo: Rapport Richárd (j) prepares to play against Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the first round of the World Chess Championship candidate tournament in Madrid on June 17, 2022.
Source: Fernando Villar / MTI/EPA/EFE